A woman who accused Julian Assange of raping her sent text messages speaking
of getting revenge on the WikiLeaks founder and making money by “giving him
a bad name”, a court has been told.

Mr Assange’s Swedish lawyer, Bjorn Hurtig, said he had seen dozens of texts sent by Miss W which “go against” her allegation last August that she was raped while she was asleep and suggest she has a “hidden agenda”.

The existence of the texts was disclosed as Mr Hurtig gave evidence on the second day of an extradition hearing to decide whether Mr Assange should be sent back to Sweden, where a prosecutor wants to indict him for rape and sexual assault.

Mr Assange is fighting the attempt to extradite him, and denies any wrongdoing, saying the allegations made by Miss W and a second woman, Miss A, involved consensual sex.

Mr Hurtig told Belmarsh magistrates’ court that he had never been given a complete copy of the prosecution case against his client, but had been allowed to view excerpts, including the texts from Miss W’s phone.

He said: “There was information in the text messages which was not good for the claimants. Regarding the rape, there are texts speaking of revenge, making money out of Julian Assange by having contact with the media and giving him a bad name.

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“There was a text message saying that the woman who said she was asleep (during the alleged rape) was half asleep, which in my world is the same as being half awake.”

Mr Hurtig told the court in south east London that Marianne Ny, the Swedish prosecutor who is seeking Mr Assange’s extradition, had tried to persuade him not to mention the texts to anyone.

In documents submitted to the court Mr Hurtig also revealed that Miss A had posted messages on the Twitter website in which she seemed happy in Mr Assange’s company after he had allegedly assaulted her, and had also written a blog detailing how a woman could get revenge on an ex-lover.

He said the texts and blogs suggest “they may have a hidden agenda, which casts serious doubt on their accusations and their trustworthiness”.

Judge Howard Riddle, the chief magistrate for Westminster, reserved judgment in the case and is expected to give his ruling next week.